1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image processing technology for carrying out modification processes on images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image modification process, a process termed “mapping” is performed. The image modification with the mapping process is executed by associating a pixel constituting a modified image (a referrer pixel) to a pixel constituting a source image (a referent pixel) which is a subject of the image modification process, and by assigning a pixel value of the referent pixel to a pixel value of the referrer pixel.
In the image modification process employing mapping in this way, the positional relationship among the referrer pixel and the referent pixel may vary depending on the position of the referrer pixels within the modified image, in accordance with contents of the modification process. To reduce affect of the varying of the positional relationship, the conventional image modification process employing mapping is performed on a memory area which is able to store entire images before and after modification.
However, in some instances, it may not be possible to allocate a memory area sufficient to store the entire images before or after modification due to the size of the image targeted for modification or the memory capacity of the image processing apparatus used for image processing. In this case it is not possible to perform the image modification process.